Getting ready for the Jubilee of Mercy

Pope Francis has proclaimed a Holy Year or Jubilee of Mercy from December 2015 to November 2016.

"At times we are called to gaze even more attentively on mercy so that we may become a more effective sign of the Father’s action in our lives. For this reason I have proclaimed an Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercyas a special time for the Church, a time when the witness of believers might grow stronger and more effective."

You can read the full text of the Holy Father's Decree, Misericordiae Vultus [MV], here.

The Jubilee Indulgence

"A Jubilee also entails the granting of indulgences.... Despite being forgiven, the conflicting consequences of our sins remain. In the Sacrament of Reconciliation, God forgives our sins, which he truly blots out; and yet sin leaves a negative effect on the way we think and act. But the mercy of God is stronger even than this. It becomes indulgence on the part of the Father who, through the Bride of Christ, his Church, reaches the pardoned sinner and frees him from every residue left by the consequences of sin, enabling him to act with charity, to grow in love rather than to fall back into sin.

The Church lives within the communion of the saints. In the Eucharist, this communion, which is a gift from God, becomes a spiritual union binding us to the saints and blessed ones whose number is beyond counting. Their holiness comes to the aid of our weakness in a way that enables the Church, with her maternal prayers and her way of life, to fortify the weakness of some with the strength of others." [MV 22]

St Wilfrid's and the Shrine of St Margaret Clitherow in the Shambles have been designated as places where the Jubilee Indulence can be gained, either by passing through the Holy Door in St Wilfrid's or by making a pilgrimage to the Shrine of St Margaret Clitherow.

These small gestures are signs of true repentance and conversion.

We are also asked to go to confession; to go to Mass and to receive Holy Communion while reflecting on the mercy of God; to make a profession of faith by saying the Creed; and to pray for the Holy Father and the intentions that he bears in his heart for the good of the Church and of the entire world.

We can receive the Indulgence for ourselves or for anyone who has died.

St Wilfrid's is open daily from 7.30am until 6.30pm. Confessions are heard Monday to Friday from 11.30am until 12 noon, on Saturdays from 10.45am until 12 noon and before Sunday Masses for twenty minutes.